David Morey 
Cryptocurrency has been with us for just over 15 years now, but it’s only in the last 5 years that we’ve seen some noticeable advancements in how it’s being used and applied across industries. Most of us thought it would simply be used as a currency and that the main attraction behind it was that it was decentralised – and not regulated by any centralised banks.
But cryptocurrency is far more than that. Its utilities go way beyond simply being an alternative to fiat currency. Today, we’re going to look at three of the most popular use cases for crypto that you wouldn’t have expected.
Playing in The New World
Let’s start with an obvious point: investment is important to the crypto ecosystem. Duh. In a way, it doesn’t because, over the last decade, more levels have grown out of blockchain. For a long time, owning cryptocurrency was about owning an investment – not necessarily doing anything with it other than waiting for it to swing in the right direction. Over the last few years, however, crypto has been spreading into various industries – one of the most substantial being the gaming industry.
With the industry growing so large, let’s focus on one particular niche: iGaming. With the market getting bigger, developers have seen a chance to create casinos optimized for crypto users, with platforms like cryptocasinos.ltd featuring some of the best to have launched in recent years – including TG Casino, Mega Dice, and Lucky Block. The deposits and withdrawals are all crypto, and blockchain powers the platforms and their games.
In addition, smart contracts on Ethereum made it possible to create games where tokens run the show. Games like Decentraland and The Sandbox are now hits in the crypto-verse, all featuring play-to-earn models that not only entertain and challenge players but help them earn more crypto in the process.
This is also another reason why NFTs have become so popular. Representing unique digital assets that cannot be replicated, artists publish and market NFTs online, with some available to purchase in various games across the blockchain.
Smart Contracts
The other use case we’re going to look at – relatively new to the scene, with the first being launched in 2015 – is the ‘smart contract.’ Smart contracts are a feature of the Ethereum blockchain – the world’s second most popular crypto network – and, as the name points out, they’re pretty smart.
These are self-executing contracts with the terms written into the code. With the ability to automate and facilitate processes and transactions, smart contracts have been created for everything from DeFi, tokenization, supply chain management, insurance policies, voting systems, and gaming.
The gaming ecosystem in Ethereum, in particular, is all down to the invention of smart contracts. Because anyone can create them, they have facilitated the creation and freedom to create various games, and this innovation has dripped down throughout the entire crypto ecosystem. Currency transfer
The last use case we’re going to look at goes back to the foundations of blockchain, and how the currency is actually moved between one wallet and another. If you look at traditional bank accounts, when you transfer money between two accounts – one in the UK and one in the US, for instance – it can sometimes get expensive due to the intermediaries it has to go through in the meantime. With Bitcoin, however, if you live in the UK and want to transfer money to a wallet of a US friend, the transfer will take place purely between yourself and the other party. No intermediary. No middle-men. In this case, the transfer is in fact facilitated by other people on the blockchain network, thus eliminating the need to use any third parties and also cutting out transaction costs.
In Summary
So there we have it, from a Bitcoin casino to a meme-based NFT, there are so many use cases for crypto at the moment, all with their own merits and niches that make them useful for various applications and industries. But for now, these are the three biggest ones. Just think, though. Crypto is only just over fifteen years old. As the world of cryptocurrency develops, even more use cases are going to be found, and that makes the future an incredibly exciting prospect!
